Officially The middle bar singers started in 1980 when Alvin Barratt and his brother took over The Anchor. There may have been sessions and singarounds in there before this date but the landlord according, to Charley Yarwood were not pre-disposed to the folk week. This information is from Tony Day and Alan White. Hence we awarded a clock to Tony Day in summer 2000 ( presented by myself and Skoda Chris) to mark our twentieth anniversary. There are a number of stories on how the middle bar sing started and who was responsible but the above is the official one. Gervase if you don't like that one how about "Balding red Misers" and also Gervase when on earth are we going to sort out the website.Cllr